


Visiting Hours

by polche



Series: A Red Scarf To Hide Invisible Bruises [1]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, i mean its kamoshida so yknow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-09 09:07:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12884613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polche/pseuds/polche
Summary: Ryuji ran his fingers through his hair, mussing up the carefully controlled chaos he gelled it in that morning. It was fucking stupid how the sterile white walls still gave him goosebumps, even when he was only visiting. It shouldn’t have taken his coward ass this long to finally try to catch up with the person who allowed him to do something worthwhile with his life for once.





	Visiting Hours

**Author's Note:**

> Some recognition for our boy Ryuuj, to acknowledge he did go through _some shit_ , and giving him someone who can relate.

Ryuji ran his fingers through his hair, mussing up the carefully controlled chaos he gelled it in that morning. It was fucking stupid how the sterile white walls still gave him goosebumps, even when he was only visiting. It shouldn’t have taken his coward ass this long to finally try to catch up with the person who allowed him to do something worthwhile with his life for once.

Ann had been thrilled, openly allowing herself to cry when she called him to say Suzui woke up, and had invited him to come visit with her. That had been the start of May, and it was halfway through June now. He couldn’t even really say why it’d taken him so long, or why he wanted to see her now of all times; all he knew was that he did. Ann had been surprised too, giving him a friendly jab about finally growing a pair, but made the appointment anyway. So here he was. Sweating like a pig headed for the slaughter.

He shook his head forcefully, and with his jaw set as tight as if he were walking into a Palace on the day of the heist, he took a step into Suzui’s hallway.

And almost immediately collapsed because his knee refused to work right.

“Shit!” His hand hit the wall with a meaty slap, and his shoulder followed a second later, but he managed to stop his fall. Why did all this crap have to happen to him?

Someone shushed him from behind one of the open doors. Red-faced, Ryuji collected himself and rushed to Suzui’s room, grateful his knee didn’t fail him again.

-

“Sakamoto-kun, hi,” Suzui greeted him, reserved and possibly a little confused, but happy to see him nonetheless. “It’s good to see you.” ‘ _Finally_ ’, she probably thought.

She was sat up against a few pillows to take some of the strain off her spine. Her hand was on a bookmark in an open book on a shelf on her lap; he must have just interrupted her.

Ryuji nodded, finding it hard to look directly at her. “You too, dude. Good to see you’re in one piece’n all,” he said, and mentally slapped himself because wasn’t that too insensitive?

Suzui actually chuckled. “Yeah, me too,” she said softly. Then, after a moment of silence, “I don’t blame you for not coming earlier.”

Ryuji looked up with a start, catching her eyes for the first time. They were gentle and full of sympathy, with none of the exasperation he’d expected.

“He got you too, didn’t he?” Her voice sliced like a sharp blade through the hospital’s eerie silence. While his knee twinged from the memory, surprisingly, it didn’t hurt. All it did was cut the tension.

“Yeah.”

“I heard from Ann what he did… I’m so sorry.”

Ryuji shook his head and rushed for the bed. “No way dude, you don’t got anything to be sorry for,” he blurted. “If anything it was me ‘n my big mouth and besides, I’m fine now.” He realized how close he was and took a step back, fumbling with one of the suspenders that usually hung casually past his hips.

Suzui didn’t comment on it, just gave him a gentle smile. “I’m glad.” She gestured for one of the chairs next to the bed. “Come on, sit down, Sakamoto-kun.”

He took it, dragged it closer with the back rest facing Suzui, so he could lean over it as he straddled the seat. “Thanks, Suzui-san.” He was glad her light words managed to air the fuzz out of his head so he could change the damn topic. “But, uh. I didn’t come here to make it all about Ryuji. How’re _you_ doing?”

Suzui gave him a big smile. “I’m doing great. I’m actually doing great,” she said again, looking down at herself in wonder, as if she couldn’t believe it herself. “I feel... free,” she looked up at Ryuji, “like, like I’d been chained down, but now I’m not anymore, you know?”

He did.

“I wish I could thank the Phantom Thieves in person,” Suzui said with a content sigh.

Ryuji fought the impulse to tell her she could, wracking his brain for something appropriate to say. “Y-you think they’re real, then?”

“He wouldn’t have that kind of change of heart on his own,” she said with absolute certainty. And if anyone would know, it’d be her.

Ryuji shuddered. She’d had to deal with him a lot more, and a lot more up close than he or Ann ever had, and having to face not just that trauma alone, but also the fear that she might _not_ be the last. Ryuiji had no idea how long Kamoshida had been teaching, but he didn’t seem old enough that he only had a few years left. It was real good they stopped him before anyone else could get hurt.

“You know, for a while I thought it might have been Ann,” Suzui mused.

“Oh?” Ryuji choked out while his mind ran a marathon to find something to say that wouldn’t out them all.

Suzui nodded, a wistful smile on her lips. “But I think I just wanted it to be her. That she could be my knight in shining armor, saving the day.”

Ryuji was reminded of when Akira first got his mask. Kamoshida loomed over him, taunted him, called him a peasant and let him know _he_ had all control. His Shadow cronies had him trapped, his every move punished with an armored fist or boot, all the while Kamoshida’s empty golden eyes drank in how powerless he must have looked. One of the Shadows pulled him up, pushed him against the wall and drew its sword, slick and shiny in the dim light. And worst of all, when Kamoshida would be finished with him, _Akira_...

He’d been close to tears, and even now the memory was enough to make him feel ill, but then Akira had screamed out, distracted the Shadows, and before Ryuji could catch up to what happened, exploded with an unworldly power that sent even Kamoshida scurrying away in fear. At the time, Ryuji had nearly pissed his pants, but at the same time, if there was ever a way to be rescued, that was it.

“But, you know, she doesn’t need to be a Phantom Thief to be my knight,” Suzui mumbled, and Ryuji wasn’t sure he was meant to hear. “Sometimes just being listened to, knowing someone cares, is enough.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have ideas for things beyond just this, but I'm quite busy with college so I'm not making any promises. But let it absolutely be known that Ryuji is bottling shit up, and it's gonna blow if I write more.


End file.
